Website Design & Development – NicheLabs, LLChttps://www.nichelabs.com
Just another Nichelabs websiteMon, 31 Jul 2017 15:12:21 +0000en-US
hourly
1 Cherry Systems: Responsive Site Gets Responsehttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/cherry-systems-responsive-site-gets-response/
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 15:06:05 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2833It wasn’t enough that Cherry Systems, specialists in recovering data from hard drives and other media devices, needed to freshen their look, their copy, and their SEO program. Nor was it enough that they needed to reflect to their clients and prospects that they work with 12 types of devices instead of the three listed […]

It wasn’t enough that Cherry Systems, specialists in recovering data from hard drives and other media devices, needed to freshen their look, their copy, and their SEO program. Nor was it enough that they needed to reflect to their clients and prospects that they work with 12 types of devices instead of the three listed on their old site. They also needed to go mobile with a responsive website.

Since launching their new website six months ago, the response has been overwhelming.

“More than half of our visitors are coming to our website on mobile devices,” said Lauren Roberts, Vice President of the family-owned company. “We can’t put numbers on what it was, but we always had a hunch that more people were visiting us through phones and tablets. The numbers we have now back that up, and it amazes me. We have on line forms, and people are able to fill them out before they mail in their damaged hard drives or devices that need to be recovered or drop them off.”

Roberts credits her NicheLabs team for helping with all the features needed to bring Cherry Systems’ website up to date with its data-recovery capabilities.

“We needed to be responsive,” she said. “We also needed the fresh new look and new language that was less technical and more in line with our clients’ voices. And, of course, we needed to tell the world about all the devices we work on – that was huge – and make it easy for them to find the information they needed to help us serve them better.”

NicheLabs helped them check all the boxes and more by recently helping her update the site to highlight her company’s appearance on “Worldwide Business with kathy ireland®” on Fox Business Network. We helped her place the show’s video link on the home page, where visitors can easily view it and get a more personal impression of the company that considers clients to be family members.

Roberts had her ideas about the look she wanted to see for the website and how she wanted visitors to be able to do business. NicheLabs’ project management team carried her ideas forward and added features and capabilities to make them more effective.

“I really like the four clickable sections that NicheLabs suggested for the home page for Quick Help, FAQs, Our Process and Contact,” she said. “When someone has a data-recovery need, they’re anxious about finding the right solution as soon as possible, and we believe our home page directs them to the information they feel they need most with just one click. On the Quick Help page, they can play sounds that replicate the noises failed drives and devices make and provide us with more info to help them.”

Adding separate pages for each drive or device Cherry Systems services helps in two ways. In addition to providing information to site visitors, the pages help direct Google searches and other online searches to right information. They can fill out forms to send with their drives and devices and know they are on their way to solving their problem and recovering their critical data.

“That was important, too,” Roberts noted, “because while we get 70 percent of our new business from referrals, we also get 30 percent from searches.”

Cherry Systems has been maintaining Page 1 Google rankings by using NicheLabs to manage all of its SEO, SEM and PPC (pay per click) advertising. “We’re coming up on the first page consistently, and that’s all we care about,” she added.

Roberts is able to use monthly search results to edit copy and pictures to keep info fresh and up-to-date on business changes and policies. With training from NicheLabs, she is mastering the WordPress content management system.

“We’ve gotten a lot of complements on our new website,” she said. “We love our website.”

And we at NicheLabs love being able to help clients like Cherry Systems put it all together. As a digital marketing agency, we can enhance your attractiveness by integrating your online visibility with your website content, keyword relevancy and all the tools we use to help you get more business. We can complement your content with website updates and digital marketing campaigns, including email blasts and pay-per-click advertising. If you’d like to start a conversation now, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>New Office, New Website, New Vibehttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/new-office-new-website-new-vibe/
Mon, 05 Jun 2017 14:35:17 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2825When Laurie Vickery decided to move her law firm, The Vickery Law Firm, into a new office, she decided it was time for a new website, too. With a new look, physically and virtually, she added an SEO program, with new keywords and more substantive pages, to create a new, more vibrant online presence with […]

When Laurie Vickery decided to move her law firm, The Vickery Law Firm, into a new office, she decided it was time for a new website, too. With a new look, physically and virtually, she added an SEO program, with new keywords and more substantive pages, to create a new, more vibrant online presence with help from NicheLabs.

Vickery, who has represented individuals and businesses for more than 15 years throughout Georgia in state and federal courts, relocated her offices to a renovated house at 138 Bulloch Ave. in Roswell’s Historic District and wanted a cleaner-looking website to reflect her new space as well as a mobile-friendly site that’s more attuned to the on-the-go accessibility of current clients and research done by prospective clients.

Being mobile-friendly enhanced the SEO program we set up for Vickery. In addition to the growing number of searches done on mobile phones and tablets, Google, the search engine giant, penalizes businesses that don’t have mobile capability.

“Incorporating SEO, tracking and making specific suggestions for the use of keywords were all really useful suggestions from NicheLabs,” Vickery said. “They also increased the number of substantive pages to help our SEO, and they helped us tremendously with the display of our graphics.”

Working with a WordPress template and blogging engine, we were able to modify the navigation tabs to highlight her attorney profile instead of a traditional about page. We included links to professional credentials and achievements and to her practice areas. All of this tied in better to visitor use from a mobile device. With the website listing results, Vickery has the capability to add new case results as updates.

“I like the compliments I receive on the website’s appearance and its easy navigation,” she says.

Want to get compliments on your website and create good vibes for your business? Talk to us. We can help you use the most effective elements of website design and development to tell it with clarity. If you’d like to expand your universe with news coverage, validate your customers’ context with your website, SEO program or other marketing activities, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Function Rules Website Design & Buildhttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/function-rules-website-design-build/
Mon, 15 May 2017 14:18:39 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2816When an agency associated with healthcare training in Saudi Arabia came to NicheLabs last this year to design and build a website, the project required a broad of view of the relationship between function and design. The English-language site would be used by an international community linguistically tied together by the use of English as […]

When an agency associated with healthcare training in Saudi Arabia came to NicheLabs last this year to design and build a website, the project required a broad of view of the relationship between function and design. The English-language site would be used by an international community linguistically tied together by the use of English as a second language, who would depend on icons to direct them to content. In addition, the site would be used primarily by people with mobile phones and tablets, making its responsive capability paramount, and it would need to tie to third-party providers for administrative functions and interactive content during classroom activities.

The start-up Saudi Healthcare Training Center was formed in cooperation with the kingdom’s government to raise the level of healthcare and professional development of healthcare providers through online communities. It draws upon the expertise of international public health and clinical specialists to engage with Saudi professionals in lifelong learning experiences tied to recognized continuing medical education credits (CME).

To help the Saudi HTC fulfill its mission, our content development team coordinated copy with a look-and-feel that emphasized colors and icons with “headline-like” copy. Further, the content was divided into a number of academies, which serve as the various online communities for students and instructors. Each academy has its own combination of color and an icon.

Our strategy enabled faster page loading on mobile devices – and for laptop users on Wi-Fi networks. Most of the website’s users, we learned in conversation with HTC managers, would be accessing the site wirelessly, and we noticed that Wi-Fi and cellular network speed varied widely outside of major cities. With language being a consideration, too, the strategy facilitated navigation to the parts of the website each user needed to visit. Once there, users could find more detailed information about specific academies and related courses and instructors.

Because each academy is a community, Saudi HTC wanted to promote interactivity within each. To meet that need, we developed online questionnaires that allow students to request courses they’d like to take and to allow instructors or potential instructors to suggest courses they’d like to teach. We also featured on every page a button to create a free account, enabling the center to engage immediately with all interested in becoming part of a community.

Our development team was tasked with connecting the website to third-party providers. One handles all of the coursework, including course descriptions, instructors and registration – all of which can be cross-indexed to allow students to search for courses by topic, academy or instructor. Instructors use the interface to add their personal and course information.

Another provider enables interactive features, such as polling, that allow students and instructors to communicate and collaborate with each other as part of the learning experience.

The design and development coordination required to make a complex website work with speed and user simplicity is a challenge we love to meet. In today’s world, your website can be connected to people who need you wherever they are, and you need to meet them on their terms.

We can help you with content, design and development services that help you deliver your messages in ways that can bring you the responses you need for your desired outcome. We can complement your content with website updates and digital marketing campaigns, including email blasts and pay-per-click advertising. If you’d like to start a conversation now, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Website Redevelopment for Nest Egg Communications Simplifies Info Access for Complex Subjectshttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/website-redevelopment-nest-egg-communications-simplifies-info-access-complex-subjects/
Tue, 25 Apr 2017 02:26:45 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2783Nest Egg Communications has built a business by making molehills out of mountains when it comes to communicating complex issues to companies with ESOPs (employee stock option plans). ESOPs give employees a financial stake in the companies they work for, and companies of all sizes have found great success in the concept. Each employee’s financial […]

Nest Egg Communications has built a business by making molehills out of mountains when it comes to communicating complex issues to companies with ESOPs (employee stock option plans). ESOPs give employees a financial stake in the companies they work for, and companies of all sizes have found great success in the concept. Each employee’s financial gain depends on everyone pulling together, and that, in turn, requires a communications system that motivates employees and effectively explains their benefits. Nest Egg has an array of products to communicate all that information to a core customer base of companies worth up to $10 million, but they turned to NicheLabs for a website redevelopment to help them close their deals.

Their previous website lacked the SEO (search engine optimization) capability to help small companies find them, and it had a complex registration process and poorly functioning online store with no PCI compliance with credit card providers for selling their communications kits. They also used an outdated blogging engine for updating information on their website.

Our solution focused on three main areas:

Redeveloping their website with user-friendly access to productsVisitors can get full product descriptions from the website or while in the online store without having to enter any information. For company managers, they can easily download PDFs about all products that they can print or forward to other managers or employees. The site also has social media “share” buttons to help push out more information across multiple communications channels. Further, the contact page only requires a name and email address, along with a comment box, simplifying the process for customers to contact the company.

Using WordPress for an effective CMS (content management system)Nest Egg employees can easily update or add product information and create blog posts. WordPress is intuitive to use, and the system also lets website managers create breadcrumb trails that help users find their way around the site more easily.

Providing a new e-commerce capability to simplify ordering and meet all security compliance requirementsThe store is always open, well-stocked and secure. Every aspect of the store operation is quickly and easily accessible – and Nest Egg branded. Full product descriptions are available right up to the “checkout page,” to make sure busy managers or committee members are purchasing exactly what they need. The checkout page is PCI-compliant, and all major credit cards are accepted.

Because this was a “redevelopment,” we were able to copy all of Nest Egg’s existing materials into the new WordPress format, which carries several benefits. In addition to improving Nest Egg’s content management capabilities, the format’s blog engine indexes all new posts to the blog, effectively reaching out to search-engine bots that look for fresh material. Incorporating their format’s responsive capability now makes all of the site’s content accessible from a computer or any mobile device that can connect to the internet.

At NicheLabs, we have the expertise to help you develop complete solutions for effective communications. Filling the role as your CMO, we can look at your marketing goals and help you devise the strategies within your budget to meet them. In addition to websites and SEO campaigns, we can help you with email campaigns, blogging, newsletters, public relations and advertising campaigns across every imaginable media platform. Call us at 888-978-9254, or send us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Exterminator Relies on NicheLabs for Bug-Free Websitehttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/exterminator-relies-nichelabs-bug-free-website/
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 12:11:47 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2789Bugs. Nobody likes them in their home or business. And Bug Busters doesn’t like them on their website, which it uses to attract and nourish its customer base. That’s why the extermination specialists, with operations in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, hired NicheLabs to build a website with an SEO program to bring in new […]

Bugs. Nobody likes them in their home or business. And Bug Busters doesn’t like them on their website, which it uses to attract and nourish its customer base. That’s why the extermination specialists, with operations in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, hired NicheLabs to build a website with an SEO program to bring in new customers and make it easy for them to ask questions, sign up for service, refer friends and pay bills – all online.

Because Bug Busters offers an extensive range of services, our design and functionality needed to provide quick access to comprehensive, tightly focused information for each market the company serves and more. To emphasize its service and to get the right information for customer appointments, Bug Busters wanted a phone call to be literally one click away. We added that function with a “Get Live Help Now” box that lets a customer or prospect fill in a phone number and whether to be called back now or 5 or 10 minutes. That box remains static throughout the site – as does the capability to share the current page by email or social media or print a hard copy.

Bug Busters also makes extensive use of its blog, and they had experience with the WordPress engine for their previous website and blog. We utilized WordPress for their new site to enable them to continue their blog, and that also gave them a content management system (CMS) to regularly update other content. They can talk about seasonal topics to encourage site visitors consider what might be bugging their houses or businesses – and take action.

The content addresses pests, termites, mosquitos and nuisance wildlife (which is more than a nuisance when it’s your house or business), and it also has a special tab for commercial pest control. In a highly competitive field, the content establishes Bug Busters’ expertise and its responsiveness to the needs of customers and prospects.

The content also fuels search engine optimization (SEO), a critical need when pest-plagued prospects launch a fervent search based on a specific infestation. We created title tags, heading tags, image alt tags and internal links to meet two needs. The first need was to position Bug Busters to show up high on the search results for treating a pest-control problem in a specific geographic location. The second need was to make sure that the search listing would direct prospects and customers to Bug Busters’ solution and let them contact the company in one or two clicks.

Our SEO program included correcting duplicate content issues and writing meta descriptions. Our mission was to ensure the site was indexed by Google and would not being penalized or blocked for any black hat tactics used previously to optimize site. Further, we ensured all images were optimized for the web by reducing file sizes to less than 50K, and we used absolute URLs instead of relative URLs (i.e. http:// vs https://).

We optimized current and new pages to drive the ranking of supporting keywords and/or geographic location by using specific domain URLs for a metro area, city or keyword. We enhanced that by setting up Google Maps for all locations and linking the pages to Google Plus.

Our functionality/user-testing process analyzed the site to determine where we could turn off JavaScript, cookies and CSS as Google recommends. We made sure to avoid Google penalties by ensuring all content was visible and that all links were working. This include fixing “301” redirects and resolving issues where content could not be searched because of technology such as Flash or iFrames.

With the website’s launch, we have a partnership in full stride. Bug Busters manages its content, and we provide the SEO necessary to tweak the content so that it hits its targets. We can help you in the same way and more. Filling the role as your CMO, we can look at your marketing goals and help you devise the strategies to meet them. In addition to websites and SEO campaigns, we can help you with email campaigns, blogging, newsletters, public relations and advertising campaigns across every imaginable media platform. Call us at 888-978-9254, or send us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

Healthcare providers and their patients rely on numbers to measure their health. Blood pressure, cholesterol levels, sugar levels, red blood cell counts, etc. are compiled to assemble a snapshot of a person’s condition to determine a path toward better health.

Healthcare marketing relies on numbers, too. An oft-cited study by the Pew Research Center shows that 77 percent of all health inquiries begin at a search engine, usually through one of the major search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, and 72 percent of internet users claim to have looked online for health information during the course of a year. In addition, some 40 percent of the advice they get online comes from social media, where people place a lot of their trust. As a result, some 80 percent of the people have already made up their minds to use a specific practice by the time they call for an appointment.

Based on the numbers, our marketing diagnosis is that you need a strong SEO program to get patients to your website. Then, you must complement your SEO with a website that conveys the critical information patients need to contact you.

As marketers, we believe a good website needs these three elements:

Quality Content: Your challenge here is to be reassuring and welcoming while displaying your technical expertise. Prospective patients – and even current patients seeking more information – want to know you are expert, and that means your copy needs to include all the “key terminology” backed up with explanations to ensure they understand what you’re talking about. When you can provide information that makes them feel comfortable in your knowledge and approach to their care, it helps move them closer to deciding to contact you. Links to additional information, such as other articles for them to read or videos, are good, but make sure they are relevant and that the linking information is still good. Those providers can pull info from their websites at any time, and they can contain links to other information that might not be good for your relationship with a patient. Google rates websites on the quality of their content.

Clear Navigation: Make sure your website navigation tools lead visitors quickly to the information they want. People look for healthcare advice or information because they have an issue of great concern. You’ll earn their confidence by helping them find the information they want in one or two clicks, and it will encourage them to stay on your site and key pages for a longer time. That will also contribute to higher rankings.

Mobile Friendly: With increasing numbers of searches being done on mobile phones or tablets, you must have a “responsive” website, one that automatically recognizes and adapts to a mobile device. The net result is easier reading and navigation. There is a general trend for researching information across the internet as well, and various analytical tools can help you learn the best ways to reach your target market through mobile devices. A responsive website goes beyond marketing. It can make it easier for patients to provide you with information in advance of a visit, but you must make sure your website complies with various regulations to protect privacy.

These three elements will also contribute to your success in SEO (search engine optimization). The major considers all of them as part of its ranking process, and the higher you score, the better your chance of ending higher up in search results. Social media activity, such as blogging, tweeting and Facebook, can also increase traffic to your website, and if you score high in the three quality elements plus pure traffic, you have a better opportunity to increase your number of patients.

In addition to marketing, we would be remiss if we did not remind you that websites and all forms of electronic communication involve highly sensitive personal information. To make the best use of the internet, you need to make sure patient information is kept secure from hackers. In most cases, failure to take proper security measures carries stiff fines and other legal penalties.

Creating and managing a website and SEO requires a lot of upfront work and constant attention – just as with starting and strengthening a relationship. If the thought of it all gives you a headache, our advice is: take two aspirin and call us. We can help you design and deploy a program and monitor and update it to maximize your online presence and keep you ahead of your competitors. Call us at 888-978-9254, or send us an email using our website contact form. An expanded website, news coverage, advertising and a granular SEO program can help expand your universe. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Creating the Online Course Guide/Travel Guidehttps://www.nichelabs.com/search-engine-optimization/creating-online-course-guidetravel-guide/
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 14:00:00 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2606When the team that runs the Research Skills Development Course at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health needed a single website to help foreign students with multiple needs, they turned to NicheLabs to pull all the resources together. The result was an easily navigable website that combines the diverse content of course descriptions; a […]

When the team that runs the Research Skills Development Course at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health needed a single website to help foreign students with multiple needs, they turned to NicheLabs to pull all the resources together. The result was an easily navigable website that combines the diverse content of course descriptions; a repository of papers submitted by students; information about traveling to the United States and then getting around Atlanta; signing up for the course; and the documentation necessary to travel to the US.

The course is designed for medical students from Saudi Arabia to develop competency in scientific research skills. Its aim is to help participants design and develop a thoughtful, powerful, and fundable scientific research protocol. During the course, they spend four weeks on the Emory campus, and they need to be able to get to the nearby Centers for Disease Control – as well as take advantage of attractions that Atlanta offers.

The course team came to NicheLabs because they needed to replace an existing website that was not logically organized nor easy to navigate. They also had difficulty managing their content.

With all of these requirements, we focused our design on simplicity and logic. The first visible link on the home page takes visitors to the About page, where students can find comprehensive information on the course, Emory, the Rollins School and the Hubert Department of Global Health – through which the course is given. The information through this page helps prospective students decide if they would like to take the course.

If they wish to continue, they can then go to the Students page to see who attended the course and the final presentations each made. This information is important because students come with research ideas that they are expected to turn into research programs. During the course, they develop a protocol, defend it orally in class, and depart ready to submit it to a funding agency.

Because coming to Atlanta presents a travel opportunity, the Your Destination page becomes their online travel guide. It gets down to business by telling students all the documentation required for traveling to the US and enrolling in the course at Emory. The page includes a downloadable PDF to guide their transition into life as student at the school. The page also contains links to dozens of websites about tourist attractions and events in Atlanta and a link to MARTA to help students plan their spare-time activities.

The remainder of the website pages include an online application for the course, contact info and biographies of faculty and staff, and a collection of forms and model proposals, helping the school meet its functional and artistic goals for the site.

If you have multiple needs for your website, we can help you use the most effective elements of design, navigation and development to guide visitors to the info they need. If you’d like to expand your universe with news coverage, validate your customers’ context with your website, SEO program or other marketing activities, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Building a Winner on the Webhttps://www.nichelabs.com/website-design-development/building-winner-web/
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:00:09 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2513While the Atlanta Braves work to build a winning team for their new SunTrust Park, NicheLabs built a winner of the website for the new stadium’s commercial development opportunities. The Braves and their new ballpark are the anchor for a huge mixed-use real estate development project, known as Battery Atlanta, that will include shops and […]

While the Atlanta Braves work to build a winning team for their new SunTrust Park, NicheLabs built a winner of the website for the new stadium’s commercial development opportunities. The Braves and their new ballpark are the anchor for a huge mixed-use real estate development project, known as Battery Atlanta, that will include shops and restaurants, Class A office space, a hotel, upscale residences and entertainment facilities.

The developers for the live-work-play project knew this wasn’t a “build it and they will come” proposition. They needed to create a virtual environment that would allow prospective tenants to put themselves in the middle of their dreams and feel the excitement of being there. And, naturally, it had to work as effectively on a tablet or mobile phone as on an office desktop. That required a high-performance website to deliver graphic images and information with the nanosecond speed needed to heighten the excitement of being part of this new community.

Achieving the result required a spot-on combination of meeting specific timing goals for displaying all the renderings – to give visitors time to embed themselves in each image – and a search engine optimization program that could quickly deliver visitors to the website and the exact information they wanted on what is essentially a “tall” single page with sections and links to other sites. Anyone interested in leasing space can find contact information for six people at the bottom of the page. Everything is one place.

Websites like this are in tune with today’s business environment. The “tall” page lends itself to the “responsive” designs that are a necessity for mobile devices. It’s a given that many website visitors will be physical visitors to a place like Battery Atlanta. Then, they will rely on the website to provide directions to their mobile devices while on their way and rely on it again to display the renderings that are shaping their plans.

That places a premium on quickly finding the website with help of virtual assistants and minimal screen taps to get people to the place where they ultimately hope to do business. With the new stadium and Battery Atlanta construction right on schedule for 2017, the website needs major league speed and performance to have everyone up and running with their own businesses before Opening Day.

Your company may not need a direct tie to a major league sports franchise, but it can perform at championship levels with a major league website and digital marketing program that tracks with your business plan. That’s why you should talk to NicheLabs. We can help you use the most effective elements of website design and development to tell it clarity. If you’d like to expand your universe with news coverage, validate your customers’ context with your website, SEO program or other marketing activities, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Designing the Defining Websitehttps://www.nichelabs.com/search-engine-optimization/designing-defining-website/
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:00:49 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2487When Atlanta-based Public Health Practice, LLC (PHP) wanted to create a new website, one of its goals was to become the world’s leading repository for published articles and presentations on public health. More than merely housing the information, PHP wanted to make it shareable all over the world to promote better public health and the […]

When Atlanta-based Public Health Practice, LLC (PHP) wanted to create a new website, one of its goals was to become the world’s leading repository for published articles and presentations on public health. More than merely housing the information, PHP wanted to make it shareable all over the world to promote better public health and the firm’s expertise. The solution was a website with a multitude of moving parts, and PHP turned to NicheLabs to design and develop the site.

PHP employees and consultants worldwide work with global and domestic clients to strengthen public health surveillance, create e-Surveillance programs, monitor and evaluate programs, and provide public health education and strategic planning. They collaborate with local public health professionals and leadership nationally and internationally to develop sustainable tools and strategies for improving public health outcomes. Projects are staffed and supported by professionals with experience in epidemiology, public health informatics, health policy and management, and project management. PHP partners with some of the world’s leading public health and academic institutions, including Emory University.

Telling their story to a worldwide audience that mostly uses English as a second language required good graphical cues to direct site visitors to the appropriate information as efficiently as possible. Because site visitors could be in areas that lack high-speed internet service or that rely on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, a high-performance, responsive design was an absolute must.

The design of all the pages emphasizes banner graphics that represent the public health solutions PHP offers, the collaborative efforts that make them successful, the people who work on projects and the parts of the world PHP primarily serves. The highlight information of the website is the solutions PHP provides, the projects related to each solution (they are multiple) and the supporting publications and presentations that amplify the story.

And, naturally, a “wow” factor here and there in the site could make things more interesting. Roll-overs and pop-ups for biographies and all the documents in the website’s library provided that. For the PHP team biographies, clicking on the team members’ pictures provide a pop-up excerpt of the member’s LinkedIn profile. A click there connects the visitor to the team member’s LinkedIn profile in a new window, which keeps visitors on the site. Using this technique also enables team members to update their biographies on the website when they edit their LinkedIn profiles.

For the library content, moving a mouse or finger over a box for each project, publication or presentation generates a pop-up summary of the library item. A click will take the visitor to the page on the PHP website that holds the information or to an offsite page. For publications, visitors can click on icons to copy the article to their clipboard or share it through social media. For presentations, a click on the excerpt lets the visitor access the presentation.

By working closely with NicheLabs on the content, design and development, PHP was able to publish what it desired — the definitive website for improving public health practices and outcomes worldwide.

If you have a big story to tell, we can help you use the most effective elements of website design and development to tell it clarity. If you’d like to expand your universe with news coverage, validate your customers’ context with your website, SEO program or other marketing activities, we invite you to contact us at 888-978-9254, or by sending us an email using our website contact form. We love to talk about marketing, best practices for SEO programs, brand messaging and content strategy.

]]>Microsoft End of Support Reminder – Changes You Need to Make for Marketing and SEOhttps://www.nichelabs.com/industry-news/microsoft-end-of-support-reminder-changes-you-need-to-make-for-marketing-and-seo/
Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:23:02 +0000https://www.nichelabs.com/?p=2323My friend Chris Jann at Medicus reminded me (as he often does about trends in IT Support) that Microsoft is ending support and security updates for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 on Jan 12, 2016. In the discussion that followed, an important perspective came up: Why has the announcement of the browser for the […]

My friend Chris Jann at Medicus reminded me (as he often does about trends in IT Support) that Microsoft is ending support and security updates for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 on Jan 12, 2016. In the discussion that followed, an important perspective came up: Why has the announcement of the browser for the dominant desktop/laptop operating system, Windows, not been a bigger deal?

Whether your website is for a brochure, to support a Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign, or your ecommerce business, the lack of buzz around this announcement confirms a couple of things:

Google’s Chrome browser and Mozilla’s Foxfire browser get a lot of use.

Big news is the amount of use of Apple’s Safari gets on mobile devices, along with Google’s Android browser.

The takeaways reinforce what savvy marketers and SEO program managers have been preaching for a while:

Mobile matters. Your site needs to be optimized for mobile. Font size. And yes, functionality. A mobile device does not have ‘hover-over or cursor-over’ displays like a desktop/laptop. What mobile devices do have are ‘click to call’ and ‘interactive directions to your location’.

Layouts and designs should be tested on an increasing number of devices and browsers. On the bright side, providers like Firefox and Microsoft are no longer supporting multiple versions simultaneously. So on one hand, test more browsers. On the other hand, there are fewer browser versions to test.

From optimizing your website and pages for Google page ranking as part of an SEO program, to ensuring ecommerce functionality can be seen and used, websites need to be tested. While it is nice to think that what works last year or even last month will continue to work, there is no guarantee. It’s the internet; the only thing that’s constant is change.

If you haven’t viewed your website in the past 60 days, make some time for you or a team member to do so. If you have questions about what you see, or want to know more about best practices for website readability and functionality of current website design trends, we welcome the opportunity to talk.

From Microsoft’s announcement:

Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. Please visit the Internet Explorer Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ here for a list of supported operating systems and browser combinations.

To speak with a NicheLabs professional, email us with our website contact form, or call 888.978.9254.